Chinzo Machida on Brother Lyoto’s Move to US: ‘He’ll Be Stronger’ for UFC Title Fight

Needless to say, Chinzo
Machida was pleased with his top charge’s latest
performance.

The older brother and coach of former UFC light heavyweight
Lyoto
Machida told Sherdog.com this week that “The Dragon” precisely
implemented the game plan put forth in training when he took out
Ryan
Bader on Saturday at UFC
on Fox 4.

“Lyoto found the distance and knocked him out,” said the elder
Machida, who trains Lyoto alongside their father, Yoshizo. “The
strategy was to keep the fight standing and try to hit him as much
as possible. The way the fight was, only Lyoto was landing shots.
Bader wasn’t finding him, but he tried to get close anyway, and he
ended up taking the backlash.”

Lyoto, 34, has made his training home in Belem, Brazil, for the
duration of his nearly 10 year MMA career. However, the ex-champ
will soon make the move stateside, where he’ll train full-time at
Black House gym in Los Angeles. His older brother approves of
the change and asserts that, even while living in Brazil, he’ll
remain part of Lyoto’s training.

“He’ll live in the U.S., but two months before his next fight, I’ll
be there to be part of the camp, and my father will arrive 15 days
before the fight,” explained Chinzo. “It’s much easier for him to
find sparring partners and train wrestling there. He’ll have
Roger
Gracie to help with jiu-jitsu, which is very important. Lyoto
will have better training than here in Belem, and he’ll come
stronger for his next title shot.”

The knockout of Bader guaranteed Machida a chance to reclaim the
205-pound belt against the winner of Sept. 1’s Jon
Jones-Dan
Henderson clash. While Chinzo prefers not to think about who
his brother will face just yet, he echoed the prevalent notion that
Jones -- who choked out Lyoto just eight months ago -- should be
favored in the matchup.

“A fight is a fight, but Jones has the reach advantage and is in a
good phase,” Chinzo said. “He should win, but we can’t rule out
‘Hendo.’ We aren’t thinking of opponents right now. Lyoto will be
ready for whoever comes.”